Education & Classes

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. ― “The Little Prince,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry I hope my friends of Henderson Middle School are not too exhausted from all the explaining. I surely tried to allow them to have some time in the Garden […]

When butterflies pass away in the Butterflies LIVE! exhibit, it can be a sad and difficult situation to explain to guests. So I try to use that opportunity to explain to guests how fragile and delicate these creatures are. Typically, I will allow guests to touch and feel a butterfly’s wings after they have “ended […]

My name is Lia Bazemore and I am interning here at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden through an organization called Partnership for the Future. Partnership for the Future is an organization that provides high schools students in Richmond with college prep courses, personal development workshops, and saving incentives. With the help of business partners, they also […]

This year’s National Moth Week is July 18 – 26 , 2015, and we would like you to join in the celebration! To help, we’re sharing some key characteristics to help you tell the differences between moths and butterflies. But first, what do they have in common? They both are insects belonging to the Lepidoptera order. In Greek, lepido translates […]

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s mission is education and our passion is bringing people and plants together to improve our community. We hope that Garden Times does just that — teaching you something, connecting you to plants, and inspiring you to visit us. As a non-profit working toward more sustainable practices — we’ve uploaded a digital […]

Rose rosette disease is a funny thing. At first it doesn’t look like there’s a problem with your roses, it just looks like there is alot of new growth, and the foliage is more pliant, more red, and almost furry, instead of prickley. (Did you know that roses have prickles, not thorns? Botanically speaking, thorns […]

Thank you RAIN (Richmond Autism Integration Network) for volunteering in the Children’s Garden. This group is not afraid to get dirty and help out in the Garden. Today they mulched and weeded. Amazing! Thank you for the 60+ service hours! If you’re youth group is interested in volunteering at the Garden, please contact Nicki Apostolow, […]

A southern summer wouldn’t be complete without the sweet smell of the southern magnolia blossom. Magnolia grandiflora, an icon of the South, is such a marvelous tree. Its large shiny evergreen leaves and large, showy, fragrant blossoms are a splendid addition to any southern garden. Here at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden we have several wonderful […]

This week, June 15 – 21, is National Pollinator Week. Pollinators are essential to our food supply and natural environment. Did you know that one in three bites of everything we eat is thanks to a pollinator? One way you can help pollinators is by planting host and nectar plants for native butterflies and bees! Other pollinators […]

It’s been two weeks since Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden sent Amina Abdulkadir and Lilah Monroe to help with the season’s first harvest in the White House Kitchen Garden — yet the two still can’t quite believe it. As Amina said: “It’s not every day you meet the First Lady!” Amina, a fourth-grader at Ridge Elementary, […]

According to Richard Louv, “Childhood memories of contact with nature involve a deep sensory imprint of texture, smell, color, sound, and taste (Louv 2005).” Most of my childhood memories involve food, much of which was grown by my grandparents. I remember following my grandfather’s tractor, picking potatoes out of the ground, and I still find […]

Recently the Richmond Waldorf School reached out to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden — our Children’s Garden in particular, as they sought to fulfill one of their 10 values: “That schools should awaken social responsibility, service to community and stewardship of the earth.” One of the parents from the 1st grade class, Katie Adams Parrish, explains, “One of the reasons that […]

When Page Robinson sent me a photo of this wall hanging via email last week, all I could think was: This is a labor of love. In the email she said, “My grandson Denver is 2 and we love all of the blooms and butterflies. I took a picture of him which shows his pure joy seeing […]

I find myself fascinated by butterfly anatomy more and more each day as I work with and learn about these remarkable creatures. Even though I have only been with Butterflies LIVE! for a few weeks, I have already witnessed and captured some seemingly small but profound events. On one such occurrence I was able to capture […]

It seems like nearly every garden in Central Virginia has them, and they are plentiful here at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden too — in Flagler and Grace Arents Garden. But did you know that Spiderwort, or Tradescantia virginiana, the plant with the odd name, is a detector of radiation? In response to low levels of nuclear radiation, the filament hairs […]

Arlington-based artist Pam Rogers is innately drawn to the natural world. The paintings in her new show: Field Investigations, on display at Ginter Gallery II, spring from that fascination. Rogers uses handmade plant and soil pigments, traditional inks, graphite, and water-based media. She collects materials for her paintings wherever she goes to use in her paintings […]

The phone! The bills! The kids! When life’s stresses have you ready to lose it, why not take a moment to step away from it all and into an oasis of tranquility? Corny? Yes. True? Yes. Life can be overwhelming. What better than to take a few moments of the day to connect with beauty […]

by Janet Woody, Librarian, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden The Pocahontas Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society, a mission-related group that meet here at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, recently gave the Lora Robins Library funding to purchase books about native plants and related topics. We were able to acquire five new titles you might be interested in. […]

by Hilaire Ashworth, Assistant Butterfly Curator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden We are so excited that the time has finally come for the opening of Butterflies LIVE! On behalf of all of the curators, we say hello and want to officially introduce ourselves. Each butterfly curator was asked a series of questions and we picked some of […]

by M. Christine Watson, PR & Marketing Intern, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Did you ever wonder how Corylus avellana ‘Contorta,’ got its common name — “Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick?” Sir Henry “Harry” Lauder, a Scottish vaudeville theater singer and comedian, was a rockstar in his day, one of the highest paid performer in the world at the time. […]

by Jay Austin, Horticulturist, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden If “Feed me Seymour!” is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term “carnivorous plants” you are probably not alone. Have you ever seen a carnivorous plant? Did you there really is such a thing — it’s not just someone’s imagination gone wild. Some carnivorous […]

by Laura Schumm, Community Kitchen Garden Horiculturist, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden A recent Tweet from the folks over at Kersey Creek Elementary School in Hanover County got us thinking about Harlequin bugs and how we can help provide suggestions for combating them organically. There are many pesky insects pest that you will most likely run into sooner or […]

by Janet Woody, Librarian, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Thousands of visitors enjoyed Dominion GardenFest of Lights this year, and many of those visitors stepped into the library and back to 1895 as they viewed our exhibit on the Lakeside Wheel Club. However, it is likely that only one visitor had a unique connection to the […]

by Jonah Holland, PR & Marketing Coordinator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Since Richmond is going bike-crazy getting ready for Richmond 2015, we thought we’d join the fun and share this photo with you! Check it out: the baby is riding between the 2 adults and no one is wearing a helmet! I love how the […]